The Road Home
by Danae3
Summary: Severely injured on his way back from a solo mission, Kakashi struggles to put one foot in front of the other. A search party is sent from Konoha, but will they make it in time?
1. Chapter 1

Kakashi crouched in the middle of the clearing, five dead bodies spread around him and one more, not yet understanding that he was dead, standing a few feet to his left, staring with wide eyes as blood flowed around the shuriken in his chest. Kakashi felt those eyes on him even before he shifted his own gaze toward the dying man.

Disbelief.

Powerful ninjas often had this look as death took them, as though they could not believe that they had been beaten, that they themselves were actually mortal. It was this look that made them merely powerful, for the great ones had a deeper understanding of themselves and accepted death as part of the ninja way.

This one fell to his knees, still failing to grasp what had happened, before falling forward into the sparse grass and soft dirt. It was only then that Kakashi lowered his left arm, his fingers still outspread in the throwing position, and wrapped his hand over the wound in his right side.

Standing slowly, Konoha's copy ninja made his way to the edge of the trees where he had dropped his pack and, releasing his side for a moment, lifted it, throwing it over his shoulder before once again tightening his grip over the wound. The adrenaline would wear off soon, he knew, and he had a long way to go before the pain hit him.

_You know, you should clean that out before you start moving. _

Kakashi closed his eyes momentarily before continuing on.

_But I guess to the great Kakashi, things like infections and bleeding to death are mere annoyances when it comes to completing a mission._

The jounin stopped, as though halted by an annoying friend and waiting for him to catch up.

_There's a stream off to your right. _

He turned to the right where he knew there was a stream without having to be told. He could smell the fresh vegetation, hear the gentle babble. He didn't have to go too far before his sandals began to sink slightly in the soft mud of the banks. Dropping the pack, he dropped to his knees, pulled his mask from his face, and bent to drink the water before using it to clean himself. Several handfuls of water were lifted to his lips before he began splashing it on his face, rinsing away the blood that had splattered on him from his attack and leaked from the small cuts on his own face. Then, he unzipped his flak jacket and dropped it beside him. Another zipper, and he shrugged out of his lightweight jacket, wincing as the gash in his side was jarred by the abrupt movement.

He paused here, as feeling began to seep back into his nervous system, to probe the area of the wound. The chakra enhanced blade had sliced cleanly through under the arm of his vest where the armor was thinnest, cutting through his jacket, and tunic underneath. Carefully, he began to peel his tunic from where blood had glued it to his skin. The edges of the wound pulled as he attempted to pull the clothing over his head, and he had to abandon that tactic to merely slicing through the fabric and pulling it off as he had his jacket. As he discarded the bloodied clothing to the ground, he released his held breath.

Apparently, this was worse that he had thought.

_I told you so._

"Not now," Kakashi murmered, leaning over the stream to splash water over the wound. It wasn't a large wound, but it was deep enough to be troubling, leaking a decent amount of blood down his side and hip. He cleaned it as best as he could, then drew his backpack closer and fished out the med-pack he normally carried on a mission.

_That's the pack Rin gave you, isn't it?_

Kakashi ignored the voice in his head as he opened the pack and pulled out several compresses and a roll of bandage and, pressing the compress to the wound with his right hand, began wrapping the bandage around his midriff with his left. It was much more awkward work than he was used to doing, but he didn't really have much choice in the matter. The pain was already beginning to shoot up his side, and with nearly thirty miles between him and the outskirts of Konoha, he still had a long way to go before he could get medical attention. A field patch-up job would have to do the trick.

It took him even longer to pull his clothes back on. The voice in his head remained silent as he slowly pulled the sleeve of his jacket up his arm and zipped it closed over his bare chest. He rested a moment, but as soon as he felt fatigue beginning to creep in, he grabbed his vest, pulled it on quickly but carefully, and pushed himself to his feet.

The earth seemed to tip under his feet, and Kakashi shot out a hand to steady himself with the help of a nearby maple tree until he regained his equilibrium. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, concentrating on each inhalation and exhalation until the dizziness had passed.

_Kakashi, those guys weren't alone. You have to move! _

Sucking down more air, Kakashi prepared himself to ignore the pain he knew would be tearing through his body in only a few minutes, and leapt high into the maple he had leaned on, and, without pause, sped off toward the village, staying high of the ground in order to avoid detection.

* * *

"Shizune!" 

Shizune pushed open the door to the Hokage's office, a prepared tea tray in her hands.

"Right here, Tsunade."

She sat the tray on the desk and began to pour out tea.

"Has Kakashi reported in yet?"

"Not yet."

Tsunade leaned back in her chair, balancing her elbows on her armrests and clasping her hands together before her chin, and stared fixedly at her assistant.

"He's late."

Nonplussed, Shizune did not even look up as she answered.

"Tsunade-sama, you do realize you are talking about Hatake Kakashi, don't you?"

Tsunade's eyes narrowed slightly.

"He's late, even for Kakashi."

"There's no such thing as late for Kakashi." Remarkably, Shizune did not flinch at Tsunade's hardened glare.

"I want to be notified if he has not returned by nightfall."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"And notify Yuhi Kurenai that her team is on standby. If he is not returned by nightfall, I want him found."

"Of course."

* * *

_It won't kill you to take a rest, you know._

"It might," Kakashi replied out loud. Obito's voice had been silent for nearly two hours now, and it was a comfort to hear it again. It made him feel a little less alone as he leaned heavily against the tree trunk, adding a second layer of compresses and bandages in an attempt to stop the bleeding that had begun again with a vengeance. Now that he had lost his pursuers, he could slow down, so long as the bleeding stopped. And if it didn't, well, he had to keep moving.

_Just a few minutes, Kakashi._

In his mind, the jounin could almost imagine the thirteen year old boy sitting on the rock across the path from him, the bottoms of his feet pressed against the side of the rock so his knees jutted out before him, peering at the older man through those goggles he used to wear. Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, as he pushed away from the tree to continue along the path.

His steps had grown heavier, and consequently, slower as the pain was aggravated with each step. At this rate, he was still several hours from the west gates, and darkness was already beginning to fall. His left hand still clutching at his injured side, he pushed on, hoping he would make it home before he collapsed.

The voice was silent again, but Kakashi imagined his boy-teammate to be walking beside him in restrained silence, much as Naruto used to do when he was thinking over something troublesome.

* * *

Asuma took a long drag off his cigarette and blew the smoke out the side of his mouth, away from Kurenai as they walked congenially toward the Kansai building where Kakashi's apartment sat perched over the Konoha merchant district. 

"Do you think he would skip a meeting with the hokage?" Kurenai asked.

"That's not Kakashi's style," Asuma answered, walking with one hand in his pocket while the other flicked ash from his cigarette. "He never pushes his tardiness. He never turns it into a missed appointment."

Perhaps Asuma should have been annoyed that one of the few nights he had to spend with Kurenai was being spent investigating whether another ninja was in town, but Asuma wasn't going to complain. If anything, as soon as Kurenai had told him about her early morning mission, he was planning on coming over here as soon as he left her anyway. She just happened to beat him to the punch.

They climbed steadily to the third floor saying little more to each other in their ascent. In fact, neither said anything more until they were standing at Kakashi's door.

Asuma knocked.

No answer.

He knocked again, calling through the door as he did.

"Kakashi, you in there?"

"He hasn't been home in a week, Asuma."

Recognizing the voice, Asuma glanced up toward the roof of Kakashi's building.

"Are you on guard duty, Izumo?"

Izumo Kamizuki waved down from where he sat cross-legged a few feet up from the edge of the roof.

"Not guard duty exactly. Just watching out for the scarecrow himself."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning the Fifth is either really pissed off at his lateness, or she's really worried." A wry smile spread across his lips. "Sometimes it's hard to tell."

Asuma nodded, then glanced back toward the apato door.

"Anybody check inside?"

"Not that I know of. I was just told to wait, not to enter."

Asuma pulled his own keys from his pocket and flipped a few before coming to the one for Kakashi's door. They both kept spare keys for each other's places in case of emergencies. The Sarutobi assumed a missing Kakashi constituted an emergency as he slipped the key into the lock and turned it until the door opened with a click. He pushed the door open, calling out again as he did so, and gaining no answer, reached in to turn on the light as he entered.

Kakashi's apartment was not large, and therefore took little time to search. His futon had been rolled up and stored in a closet beneath a row of clothing neatly organized by color. The apartment had been swept and dusted, leaving behind an eerily clean living space. The only signs of being lived in were revealed in a chawan, rinsed and left in the sink; a newspaper, folded open to a completed hitori puzzle; and a few pictures, framed and residing on a low shelf beside a stack of books.

Izumo, who had never spent time in Kakashi's apartment, and found it like being introduced into the very private man's mind, thumbed through one of the books, finding that the man actually read outside of the Icha Icha series. He flipped the book back down on the stack and leaned forward to look at the pictures. One was a picture of Kakashi with Team 7, though at this point it was all but defunct with the Uchida kid gone and Naruto and Sakura training with the Sannin. The second picture, Izumo picked up and examined closely. It depicted his first team complete with a very youthful Yondaime and a young Kakashi whose eyes were lit with anger. The other two in the picture were familiar. The kid in the goggles had been a Uchida as well, and, so far as Izumo could remember, had died on a mission not long after Izumo had made genin. Rin, however, Izumo remembered. They had worked together as chunins a few times, and he had even developed a bit of a crush on the older kunoichi before her death.

He hadn't realized she had been on a team with Kakashi, who by that time had been an ANBU, and known to the young chunin only by reputation. With one last look over the picture, Izumo replaced it on the shelf. Asuma and Kurenai were ready to go, and Izumo still had a long night to go on a roof.

* * *

Night had fallen full over the Fire Country, and with only a silver sliver of a moon to light his path, Kakashi, stumbled along. His head and shoulders drooped as the trail tipped precariously to the side, shoving the injured shinobi into a small bush. 

_-kashi._

Ignoring the voice, he took a few more steps before finding his balance again on a sturdy tree only a meter from the path.

_Take it easy, Kakashi._

Kakashi, exhausted to his very core, rested his head against a knot in the tree while his body was hidden by the foliage of the branches.

* * *

"Do we have any idea where to start?" 

Without glancing up at Shino, Kurenai pointed at a spot on the map.

"Our last correspondance with him was from Tukai village. We'll travel along the route he would have taken. If we're lucky, we'll find him before we reach that point. If not, we may be heading into Earth to find him."

"You think he might've been-?" Kiba didn't finish the question. His attention was caught by two shadows that had descended on them.

"N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata stammered in surprise. "Sakura-chan!"

"Kurenai-sensei," Naruto said, focusing squarely on the kunoichi before him. "Sakura and I are going with you."

"Hokage-sama didn't mention-."

"We didn't ask," Sakura cut in. Her face was as set in determination as Naruto's. "We're going to help you find Kakashi-sensei."

Kurenai straightened, concentrating on rolling her map rather than looking at Kakashi's team.

"I can't allow you to go without orders. You know that, Sakura."

"And if you try to stop us," Naruto answered, his voice low, "you'll waste more time than Kakashi-sensei may have."

"Besides," Sakura added, "he may need a medic."

"I can't allow it," she repeated, though her voice was softer.

"Kurenai-sensei," Hinata spoke up, "if it were you, we would want the same."

"Besides, Naruto's dumb enough to follow after us." Kiba grinned. "Then we'd have to search for him, too."

Kurenai looked up and saw Kiba's grinning face, Hinata's pleading, and Shino's. well, blank. She sighed.

"Naruto, Sakura- do you have your gear with you?"

* * *

_"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_" 

Kakashi closed his eyes to ward off the dizziness in his head. He couldn't last like this. He'd lost too much blood, and his body was barely responding. He slowly opened his eyes.

A small, round-faced pug stared up at him.

"You look like hell." His ear twitched as Kakashi slid further down the side of the tree so he was squatting before the nin-dog, but Pakkun was not deceived. Were he to step away from the blessed sturdiness of that tree, his master would not be able to remain upright. The smell of blood wafted strongly from him. "You okay?"

"I need the pack to scout the area for enemy shinobi," Kakashi said, ignoring Pakkun's question. "Report any activity back to me." The team disappeared in all directions, leaving only Pakkun to look up at his master with worried eyes as he slid further down the tree and slumped forward over his knees.

"Yo, Kakashi, if we find anyone, you're not gonna fight 'em, are you?"

"There is no 'we,' Pakkun," Kakashi corrected him, reaching forward and scratching him gently behind the ears. "You have a different mission."

"You keep avoiding my questions."

"Ask better ones." He leaned back, wincing at the pain in his side, and moving slightly to wrap his hand over the wound again. "Go to Konoha. Find me a medic. Shizune or Sakura. Doesn't matter."

"Yeah. I'll be back soon." Kakashi nodded. "Make sure you don't die while I'm gone."

"That's the plan," the scarecrow answered with a wry smile hidden by his enigmatic mask.

* * *

AN: Just a few notes.

First, this is set after the time skip, but before the Niju Shotai story arc. I know that technically, that's almost no time at all and that Kakashi was training with Naruto at that time, but I actually started writing this before the manga storyline killed off one of my characters and rendered another unfit for missions. And, what can I say? I like having them in here, so I'm not chaging it for continuity.

Second, I hate these things, but before someone flames me for not having one, here goes: **I do not own Naruto**. I don't understand why people get all bent out of shape if you don't include this. This is a FANfiction site, so wouldn't that mean that we all understand that the stories are based off characters and storylines that someone else created? Seems a little redundant to me, so my passive-aggressive self is tacking it on at the end.


	2. Chapter 2

"There's something ahead," Shino's toneless voice cut through the silence that had fallen since their twilight departure, despite having two of the loudest, and many times most obnoxious, shinobi on the team. Naruto, however, was silent, focused in a way Kurenai would never have thought possible three years ago, and Kiba, sensing the tension as well as any canine, complied.

"Is it Kakashi?" Naruto asked, even as Kurenai opened her mouth to ask the same question.

"No, but it carries his scent."

"I see it," Hinata supplied. "It's- a dog?"

Akamaru growled deep in his throat, but Kiba's hand on his head calmed him.

"A member of his pack?" Kurenai asked, glancing at Sakura, who was directly to her left.

"Pakkun, probably, but Kakashi-sensei isn't with him?"

"No," Shino answered.

Hinata merely shook her head. A glance at Kiba showed that he was concentrating hard on the path before them; his answer, as well, was in the negative.

_

* * *

_

The jounin closed his eyes, much too weak to fight the exhaustion pulling at his body any longer. He was beyond logic. He was beyond discipline. Instinct dictated that he close his eyes and let his body rest.

A figure materialized before him, crouching down to look into the passive face of the unconscious man. The figure reached out with his small hand toward the shinobi's face, but pulled it back quickly, only to reach up to his own face, his fingers skirting his left eye.

Uchida Obito wrapped his arms around his shins and pressed his forehead to his knees, looking every bit the fourteen year old boy he had been at his death.

"It won't be long now, Kakashi," he whispered. "It won't be long."

* * *

"SAKURA!"

The sheer volume and lack of an honorific was enough to alarm Sakura and Naruto of the nin-dog's panic.

"Pakkun! Where's-?"

"You have to come with me!" the bulldog cried, ignoring all the others and focusing only on the sole medic of the group. He nearly trembled with anxiety; a farcry from the calm visage he normally wore, blithely making sarcastic comments to anyone who fell across his path. "He's hurt. Bad."

"Take us to him!"

With a yelp, Pakkun turned and raced toward his master, the rescue team close on his tail.

* * *

Obito tipped his head to the side, still leaning his cheek against his knees as he looked to the horizon. The sun was rising. The light would be here soon. He turned his gaze on his teammate- his friend, who had stopped moving a long time ago. There wasn't much more he could do.

"Pakkun, how far?"

"Just a few kilometers." He leapt to another branch, not slowing to allow the group to stay with him, but Naruto had managed to stay even with him, and Sakura was just a few steps behind.

"How bad is he?" Sakura asked. Pakkun glanced over his shoulder at her and saw her face set in stone, as though she was getting ready for a fight.

"I don't know. I could smell a lot of blood on him." He fell silent, wondering if he should say more, if they would even know. "He was talking to Obito when I left."

"Obito?" Naruto asked.

"Obito Uchida was on Kakashi's chunin team," Kurenai supplied, pulling even with them.

"So he's not alone?" Sakura asked.

Kurenai's mouth tightened, but it was Pakkun who answered the question.

"Obito died almost fifteen years ago."

* * *

Obito reached forward, allowing his hand to touch the man's shoulder.

"Kakashi, wake up."

The man opened his eyes and looked wearily up at the boy kneeling before him.

"Obito?"

"Kakashi, it's almost time. You have to come with me."

"To where?"

Obito lowered his eyes from his friend's for a moment, then stood, turning to the side so he was looking farther down the path.

"Just a little farther down this path."

"How far?"

"Do you see where the sunlight breaks through the branches? Not too far."

"And then?" He breathed deeply, as though in a sigh, but his eyes remained on the boy.

"And then- and then, Kakashi." He smiled, then his smile spread into a grin. "You'll see them- all of them. You won't be alone anymore. You won't hurt anymore." When Kakashi did not move, emotion fell from Obito's face, and he found himself staring away down the path as he spoke. "I was scared, Kakashi. I know you're probably not- you never are- but I was. I stayed as long as I could, but finally, I couldn't stay any longer. I _had_ to go, and there wasn't anyone to help me." He turned back to his old teammate. "That's why I'm here, Kakashi. It's easier when you have someone with you."

"I see," he said resignedly. Already, his body was feeling too heavy for him to lift easily. It was too late. "What must I do?"

"Just take my hand."

* * *

"He's just up ahead!" Pakkun called over his shoulder as he raced through the trees.

"Sixty meters!" Kiba announced.

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura nodded back to Naruto, and the two surged forward, intent on finding their sensei.

"Obito," Kakashi said, gently holding the boy's hand as they stood next to his body. "You were scared, you said, when it was your turn?"

"Hai. Terrified."

"I think I understand." He smiled at the young Uchida, his eyes crinkling in a way Obito had never seen in his own life- only in his watchings after his own death. "I dislike going into situations without knowing what to expect."

"I think that's the way it is with all shinobi. There are very few who are truly prepared for death." He smiled sadly. "Sensei was, and Sandeime." He tipped his head to the side in thought. "You've found peace, Kakashi."

"I think I have."

They began walking down the path.

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto landed beside his sensei, grabbing his shoulders and rolling him down onto his back as Sakura slipped the straps of her bag from her shoulders and slid her ear down to his chest in one smooth movement.

"Naruto, get the bandages out of my pack," she told him, her voice deceptively calm as she began checking his vitals. His heartbeat was weak, failing, but his breaths were nealy nonexistant. She began channeling chakra into his chest.

* * *

Sun seemed to break through the branches in a way that seemed impossible, pouring light over the path like water over a great falls. It was peaceful, calm.

Welcoming.

* * *

"NO!" Sakura cried out as the heartbeat beneath her hands finally stopped. "Naruto!" she cried, her voice shaky for the first time. "I need you!" She placed her hands together and began compressions on her sensei's chest. "Breathe for him!"

"Nani?"

"Breathe for him, Naruto! We're losing him!"

"Bu- uh."

She shoved him out of the way and leaned over Kakashi's head, blowing two breaths into his lungs, then moved back to compressions.

"It's more efficient if we have two people doing this!" she yelled. "Now when I tell you, blow air into his lungs twice!" The compressions continued, with her counting on her breath. "Ready?"

Naruto hesitated, his mouth hanging slightly open, eyes shifting from Sakura to Kakashi.

"Naruto!" she warned, the one word promising a bone-bruising beating later on. "Put your mouth on his and give him oxygen."

"But-."

"It's air, not a kiss. Just do it! Now!"

The rest of the team landed in the clearing as Naruto leaned down over Kakashi's face.

* * *

Obito stopped just short of the light and turned around to see the small gathering around Kakashi's body, attempting to keep him alive.

"Kakashi, that's-."

"-disturbing," the older man finished, seeing his loud-mouthed student with his mouth on his own.

"-your team. They're trying to bring you back."

Kakashi said nothing, but continued to watch as Sakura and Naruto attempted to bring him back to life. Kurenai's team remained a respectful distance back, as though not wanting to intrude on the last moments of this team together, even if it did appear hopeless. Only Kurenai herself came forward, kneeling on the other side of Kakashi from Naruto, her hand on Pakkun's head. The loyal little nin-dog was lying next to his master, his nose pressed against Kakashi's shoulder.

"Kakashi-."

* * *

"-sensei, don't you die on us!"

* * *

"-it's time."

Kakashi tore his eyes away from the team trying to resuscitate him and looked down into the tear-shined eyes of his oldest friend.

"I didn't know dust could effect you yet, Obito."

"It's not the dust." He smiled sadly and looked back at the gathering. "You can make a choice, I think. It's your step to take. Just- which direction will you take it in?"

"That's surprisingly eloquent for you," came the distracted reply.

"Your precious people are in that direction," he said, motioning toward the spilling light. "But here, you are their precious person. They would protect you, too. And mourn you. Perhaps, you are not as alone as you think."

* * *

"Kakashi-senei! No!" Tears spilled down Sakura's face as she continued to keep his heart beating, but knowing deep down it was hopeless.

"Sakura-chan," Kurenai grabbed her shoulders gently and tried to pull her away. "You did all you could."

"No!" she cried, elbowing the woman away. "He wouldn't give up on us!"

Naruto just stared in shock, tears already streaming down his own face, as he watched Sakura completely lose control.

"Sakura-chan," he said softly. "Sakura-chan, _please_."

She turned her shining green eyes on him.

"Naruto, I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't-." Her voice broke, unable to say it.

_I couldn't save him._

Naruto wrapped his arms around her.

"It's okay, Sakura-chan."

* * *

Still holding Kakashi's hand, Obito stepped backwards into the light. His smile was sad as he continued to look at his fallen friend. The light fell over him, making his appearance more solid than it had before, but Kakashi, still standing just outside the light, only appeared more ghostly.

"Time to go." He dropped his friend's hand, and made a motion with it; his smile suddenly broadened.

The lightfall became brighter, blindingly so, but as it shimmered out, both man and boy were gone.

* * *

Pakkun whined, that high, heartbreaking whine only a faithful canine can make, but that everyone feels deep inside when one such as Hatake Kakashi was lost, and nudged his master's hand with his nose. Tears stung her own eyes as Kurenai continued petting the heartbroken bulldog. She knew, however, it was even less a comfort for him as it was for her. She wished Asuma was there.

Suddenly, Pakkun's ears perked up, followed by his head. He stared intently at Kakashi for a moment before calling out.

"Sakura!"

Sakura sniffed, pulling her face from Naruto's chest where she had been sobbing.

"Pak-kun?"

"He's breathing!"

Sakura's eyes filled with tears again, her bottom lip trembling just a little to see the desperate hope on the poor nin-dog's face.

"I'm sorry, Pakkun, but-."

"Sakura-chan! Naruto-kun!" Hinata stepped forward, her eyes wide. "His chakra! He's-."

"Alive," Kurenai finished, her fingers already pressed against Kakashi's neck. "Somehow, he has a heartbeat."

Sakura leapt forward, pressing her own fingers against his wrist and finding a pulse there as well. Hastily, she pulled an arm across her eyes, then tore at his shirt to check his wounds. There were many, but the one in his side looked bad. She would need help on this.

"Hinata-chan, will you help me?"


	3. Chapter 3

Asuma sat back in his molded plastic chair and took his pack of cigarettes from his vest pocket. Absently, he tapped out a smoke and his fingers fiddled with it before placing it between his lips.

The week had been a long one. Kakashi, lying silently beneath the pristine white sheets of his hospital bed, had awakened twice in the last forty-eight hours, both times unaware of what was going on around him and mumbling in a one-sided conversation to Obito Uchida. It chilled Asuma to witness this, bringing back memories he wished he did not have. Memories of a distraught ANBU, speaking to his long dead teammate.

Asuma closed his eyes.

How many lives can one person have?

"It's a hospital, Asuma."

The jounin opened his eyes to find he was being watched through a heavy-lidded brown eye.

"It's not lit," he answered casually, removing his cigarette from his lips and holding it in his fingers.

"Still a hospital." The eye drifted closed, but Asuma could see the man had not drifted off to sleep again. He was simply too tired to keep it open.

"It's good to see you alive, Kakashi."

A sound of assent rumbled in his throat.

"How do you feel?"

"Like death."

He couldn't help it. Asuma chuckled at the dry answer, watching in silence as Kakashi opened his eye again and began testing his limbs, wincing in pain each time he jarred the injury in his side. It was lightly amusing, the jounin decided. Each time Kakashi was brought in with an injury, the first thing he did was begin checking himself over, making his own assessments of how long before he could check himself out (or escape through a window). He was probably the only patient the hospital staff preferred to see with chakra exhaustion, as it meant the man would not be moving on his own for an extended period of time.

"You had those kids worried, you know," Asuma began conversationally. "Pakkun, too. I've never seen him so upset."

"What happened?" Kakashi asked, done with his self-examination and settling deeper into the pillow.

"I wasn't there," came the answer. "Kurenai's team went looking for you, plus Naruto and Sakura. Kurenai said Pakkun actually led them to you."

"I don't remember."

"You wouldn't. You were an inch from death. Well, you _were_ dead for a little while."

This caught Kakashi's attention.

"Dead?"

"That's what I heard. Heart stopped and everything. CPR was halted, no one was touching you, and suddenly your heart suddenly started beating again." He eyed his friend closely. "Someone was looking out for you."

"Hmm?" Kakashi didn't seem to be listening anymore.

"Pakkun said you were talking to Obito as he was leaving you."

Silence. That brown eye continued to stare up at the ceiling.

"What happened, Kakashi?"

Silence.

"I know what's going on when you start talking to him." Asuma was trying to keep his tone level, to keep calm. He was one of the few people who were not easily ruffled by Kakashi's personality- his keen sense of selective hearing. Kakashi Hatake was rarely truly disconnected to what was going on around him. "And I know what's going on when you start seeing him."

"Asuma, what makes you think I saw him?" Again, that damnable calm tone.

"I know you too well, and I know that look. God knows I've been with you enough times when you've almost died."

"Perhaps I should find someone else to watch my back then." He smiled at Asuma, his eye curving down slightly at his joke, but Asuma was not amused.

"I've pulled the blade from your hand twice, Kakashi. If something's wrong with you again, I want to know it."

"I'm fine, Asuma." The smile had slid from his face, smoothly morphing from humor to honesty. "My wounds were not self-inflicted."

"That's not what I meant."

"And in all fairness, it has been five years since that time."

"Since Rin."

"Hai, since Rin."

Silence fell between the two comrades who had shared so much life and death. It stretched out beyond the room, beyond the day, to times and places long past. At last, Asuma realized that Naruto and Sakura would soon return to check on their sensei. He removed the pack from his vest again and slid his cigarette back inside.

"I just don't want you to give up, Kakashi. Things get awful quiet around here without you to annoy Tsunade."

Kakashi didn't answer for a long time. He simply continued staring, though Asuma, who knew him so well could see he was not looking at anything, but at the past.

"I don't remember much of it, to be honest, but I think there was a moment where I had a choice." Slowly, his gaze swept over to one of his few friends. "Strange, I think, that I could have the choice when I've taken that choice from so many others."

Asuma stared for a moment, then concentrated on sliding the pack back into his vest pocket. "Don't start getting all philosophical on me. You know it annoys me."

The door opened and Naruto and Sakura walked in, seemingly in the middle of an argument. They were nearly to the bedside when Naruto realized they were being watched by their very amused sensei.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're awake!" he cried, bounding toward the bed, with Sakura, much more demurely, behind him.

"How are you feeling?" she asked. "Should I call Tsunade-sensei?"

"Baka!" Naruto cried, pointing an accusing finger at the patient. "Do you know how worried we were?"

Asuma stood, enjoying the look on Kakashi's face at the sudden noise that had whipped into the room, but it was time to go. He was sure the two would want to speak with Kakashi themselves, and if not, Asuma wasn't sure how long he could deal with Naruto in an enclosed space.

"It was the right choice," he said, laying a hand on his shoulder. He couldn't help the smirk on his lips, and although Kakashi's look was no longer calm as it had been, he obviously agreed.

As he walked across the room, he heard Naruto ask, "What choice, Kakashi-sensei?"

The door was closed before the answer came.

FIN

* * *

Sorry. This was meant to be short. Originally, it was meant to be a one-shot, but developed into something slightly longer. This chapter is one I envisioned a long time ago and is related to another story I'm currently working on. Unfortunately, it's still in the prewriting stages, so it will be a while. Hope you enjoyed! 


End file.
